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Burton 42 Burntwood 3 on Mar 3rd 2007

Following last week’s excellent win at Newcastle the Burton side was full of confidence when they took to the field against Burntwood. This week it was a struggle for opposition rather than players that posed a threat to the fixture with Burntwood being the fifth side contacted when trying to get a fixture. But with the visitors arriving with a front row composed of 17 and 18 year olds the game could only take place with uncontested scrums from the start.

Burton started well and with possession from scrums being a foregone conclusion it was only the lineouts that gave either team a chance of stealing possession and here Sean Green and Stuart Saunders dominated. After five minutes Saunders took a quick tap penalty and powered over the visitor’s line from five metres out. From this score Burton continued to play with discipline and control playing some good rugby with driving mauls and quick ruck ball. With Saunders being joined by Rich Lewis and Dave Viles making good ground with powerful runs the visitors became increasingly frustrated at their lack of ball and Burton scored tries through John Hamilton, Ben Stone, Lewis and Green before Saunders weighed in with another for himself. Unfortunately a procession of attempted kickers failed to produce the goods but upon Ben Waldron taking up the challenge he managed two conversions and a penalty goal.

Burton’s final try came from good forward driving producing quick ball that was spun out to the backs to see Waldron darting between the opposition centres before feeding Karl English whose angled run flatfooted the defence as he raced over to score. Although Burntwood did manage a late penalty goal to put the final score at 42-3 the victory was emphatic and another confidence boost to this side as it starts to get results again after a shaky few games.